The State of Satire

I have been pondering over the state of television satire here in the UK and wondering why this is a genre of television where the US seems to be way ahead of us.

This struck me after reading almost as much about Tina Fey's portrayal of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live (SNL) as Sarah Palin herself. The impact her impersonation is having seems to be akin to that Spitting Image had over here on figures such as John Major, Ken Baker and David Steel. But Spitting image finished a long time ago.

In addition to SNL on NBC, the mainstays of US satire are Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report. These shows, which can be seen over here on More 4 and FX respectively (so go ahead and series link them on your Sky +), run for 4 nights a week through most of the year and are striking for their consistently high standards. Let's not forget Bill Maher who now has Real Time on HBO. All of these shows are mainstream late night viewing in the US and can attract major name guests.

As far as I can work out, UK television satire seems to be limited to quiz shows - Have I Got News For You and Mock the Week - and Marcus Brigstocke's The Late Edition on BBC4 which, for most of you who won't have seen it (a fair assumption given it's BBC4), is a cheap and pale imitation of The Daily Show.

So why is it that the US is so much better at this than us?

Well, the sheer quality of writing and on screen talent to start with. For The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to be able to put out such a consistently high standard of programme day after day must demand a lot from the writing team.  Of course, they can afford to pay for a bigger writing team and for better writers - but these shows are still relatively cheap shows to make for the Cable Networks.   The writing on The Late Edition became noticeably ever more lazy as the short series progressed, while the quiz shows derive their humour from being somewhat unscripted.  

My second point is my belief that the UK channels don't seem to have any faith in satirical television or the audience for it.   If they did, the money would be spent on the writers and presenters.  In an era where reality tv is king, can there really be demand for television that asks for a little intelligence from the viewer?  Well, I believe there is.   And to think we here in the UK tend to belittle Americans for being a little....stupid.

And then there's Mrs Thatcher.  Yes, some of the blame must lie at her door - albeit indirectly.  A lot of the comedians on television today cut their teeth in the Thatcher years and seem to have had a little difficulty adjusting to the fact that it's not the Tories in power anymore. Satire should always pose questions of government, but I often feel there is a tendency to reign in satire on this Government because of the feeling that too much damage would help the Tories (not that they need to much helping right now). Listen to Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel on Radio 4's News Quiz for a couple of perfect examples of this.

Will this change?  I doubt it, but there is a ray of hope and his name is John Oliver. A British comedian who is part of Jon Stewart's Daily Show team (see my post earlier this week).  One day, he'll be back over here in the UK and I'm sure he will be looking to bring the production values he's seen from the show back here. In the meantime, I guess I'll make do with my daily fix of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I suggest you do too...